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Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse
Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system from its earliest days, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation's hardscrabble coastlines. Beginning with "Boston Light," America’s first lighthouse, Dolin shows how the story of America, from colony to regional backwater, to fledging nation, and eventually to global industrial power, can be illustrated through its lighthouses.
Even in the colonial era, the question of how best to solve the collective problem of lighting our ports, reefs, and coasts through a patchwork of private interests and independent localities telegraphed the great American debate over federalism and the role of a centralized government. As the nation expanded, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so too did the coastlines in need of illumination, from New England to the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Coast all the way to Alaska. In Dolin's hands we see how each of these beacons tell its own story of political squabbling, technological advancement, engineering marvel, and individual derring-do.
In rollicking detail, Dolin treats readers to a memorable cast of characters, from the penny-pinching Treasury official Stephen Pleasonton, who hamstrung the country's efforts to adopt the revolutionary Fresnel lens, to the indomitable Katherine Walker, who presided so heroically over New York Harbor as keeper at Robbins Reef Lighthouse that she was hailed as a genuine New York City folk hero upon her death in 1931. He also animates American military history from the Revolution to the Civil War and presents tales both humorous and harrowing of soldiers, saboteurs, Civil War battles, ruthless egg collectors, and, most important, the lighthouse keepers themselves, men and women who often performed astonishing acts of heroism in carrying out their duties.
In the modern world of GPS and satellite-monitored shipping lanes, Brilliant Beacons forms a poignant elegy for the bygone days of the lighthouse, a symbol of American ingenuity that served as both a warning and a sign of hope for generations of mariners; and it also shows how these sentinels have endured, retaining their vibrancy to the present day. Containing over 150 photographs and illustrations, Brilliant Beacons vividly reframes America's history.
Even in the colonial era, the question of how best to solve the collective problem of lighting our ports, reefs, and coasts through a patchwork of private interests and independent localities telegraphed the great American debate over federalism and the role of a centralized government. As the nation expanded, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so too did the coastlines in need of illumination, from New England to the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Coast all the way to Alaska. In Dolin's hands we see how each of these beacons tell its own story of political squabbling, technological advancement, engineering marvel, and individual derring-do.
In rollicking detail, Dolin treats readers to a memorable cast of characters, from the penny-pinching Treasury official Stephen Pleasonton, who hamstrung the country's efforts to adopt the revolutionary Fresnel lens, to the indomitable Katherine Walker, who presided so heroically over New York Harbor as keeper at Robbins Reef Lighthouse that she was hailed as a genuine New York City folk hero upon her death in 1931. He also animates American military history from the Revolution to the Civil War and presents tales both humorous and harrowing of soldiers, saboteurs, Civil War battles, ruthless egg collectors, and, most important, the lighthouse keepers themselves, men and women who often performed astonishing acts of heroism in carrying out their duties.
In the modern world of GPS and satellite-monitored shipping lanes, Brilliant Beacons forms a poignant elegy for the bygone days of the lighthouse, a symbol of American ingenuity that served as both a warning and a sign of hope for generations of mariners; and it also shows how these sentinels have endured, retaining their vibrancy to the present day. Containing over 150 photographs and illustrations, Brilliant Beacons vividly reframes America's history.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published April 18, 2016
109 people are currently reading
3092 people want to read
About the author
Eric Jay Dolin
19 books464 followersI grew up near the coasts of New York and Connecticut, and since an early age I was fascinated by the natural world, especially the ocean. I spent many days wandering the beaches on the edge of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, collecting seashells and exploring tidepools. When I left for college I wanted to become a marine biologist or more specifically a malacologist (seashell scientist). At Brown University I quickly realized that although I loved learning about science, I wasn't cut out for a career in science, mainly because I wasn't very good in the lab, and I didn't particularly enjoy reading or writing scientific research papers. So, after taking a year off and exploring a range of career options, I shifted course turning toward the field of environmental policy, first earning a double-major in biology and environmental studies, then getting a masters degree in environmental management from Yale, and a Ph.D. in environmental policy and planning from MIT, where my dissertation focused on the role of the courts in the cleanup of Boston Harbor.
I have held a variety of jobs, including stints as a fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental consultant stateside and in London, an American Association for the Advancement of Science writing fellow at Business Week, a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and an intern at the National Wildlife Federation, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the U.S. Senate.
Throughout my career, one thing remained constant--I enjoyed writing and telling stories. And that's why I started writing books--to share the stories that I find most intriguing (I have also published more than 60 articles for magazines, newspapers, and professional journals). My most recent books include:
***A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes (Liveright, 2020), which was chosen by:
The Washington Post -- One of 50 Notable works of Nonfiction for 2020
Library Journal -- One of the Best Science & Technology Books of 2020
Kirkus Reviews -- One of the top 100 nonfiction books of 2020 (it was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize)
Booklist -- 10 Top Sci-Tech Books of 2020
Amazon.com -- One of the Best Science Books of 2020
And also was an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review.
New York Times -- Editor's Choice
***Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2018), which was chosen as a "Must-Read" book for 2019 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Author's Club.
***Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright, 2016), which was chosen by gCaptain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016.
***When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail (Liveright, September 2012), which was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the ten best non-fiction books of Fall 2012.
***Fur, Fortune, and Empire: the Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010), a national bestseller, which was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and The Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the top non-fiction books of 2010. It also won the 2011 James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association, and was awarded first place in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Excellence in Craft Contest.
***Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007), which was selected as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal. Leviathan was also chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the 10 best history books of 2007. Leviathan garnered the the 23rd annual (2007) L. Byrne Waterman
I have held a variety of jobs, including stints as a fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental consultant stateside and in London, an American Association for the Advancement of Science writing fellow at Business Week, a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and an intern at the National Wildlife Federation, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the U.S. Senate.
Throughout my career, one thing remained constant--I enjoyed writing and telling stories. And that's why I started writing books--to share the stories that I find most intriguing (I have also published more than 60 articles for magazines, newspapers, and professional journals). My most recent books include:
***A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes (Liveright, 2020), which was chosen by:
The Washington Post -- One of 50 Notable works of Nonfiction for 2020
Library Journal -- One of the Best Science & Technology Books of 2020
Kirkus Reviews -- One of the top 100 nonfiction books of 2020 (it was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize)
Booklist -- 10 Top Sci-Tech Books of 2020
Amazon.com -- One of the Best Science Books of 2020
And also was an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review.
New York Times -- Editor's Choice
***Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2018), which was chosen as a "Must-Read" book for 2019 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Author's Club.
***Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright, 2016), which was chosen by gCaptain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016.
***When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail (Liveright, September 2012), which was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the ten best non-fiction books of Fall 2012.
***Fur, Fortune, and Empire: the Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010), a national bestseller, which was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and The Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the top non-fiction books of 2010. It also won the 2011 James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association, and was awarded first place in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Excellence in Craft Contest.
***Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007), which was selected as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal. Leviathan was also chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the 10 best history books of 2007. Leviathan garnered the the 23rd annual (2007) L. Byrne Waterman
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
October 27, 2023
“Lighthouses are among the most beloved and romanticized structures in the American landscape. It is not difficult to find the evidence of their hold on the public’s imagination. Lighthouses are emblazoned on postage stamps and license plates, while legions of artists portray them on their canvases. Many cities and towns incorporate lighthouses into their official seals, and even more businesses and organizations use lighthouses in their logos and advertising. Scores of books, movies, and television shows employ lighthouses as subjects, plot elements, or as dramatic settings. And millions of people visit lighthouses every year…The inherent beauty of lighthouses – starkly etched against the sky – is undeniably a big part of what makes them so alluring. But America’s intrinsic fascination with lighthouses runs deeper than that. Over three centuries, these brilliant beacons have indelibly woven themselves into the American fabric, and it is this rich history more than anything else that draws us in…”
- Eric Jay Dolan, Brilliant Beacons: A History of American Lighthouses
Growing up, lighthouse keeper was my job of choice. It seemed like such a perfect fit. I’d flip the light on at night, turn it off in the morning, and spend the rest of the time reading by the ocean, enjoying the amazing vistas and the salt-scented breeze from the sea. Given that I get exhausted around people, the solitude appealed to me as well.
Of course, the job of an actual lighthouse keeper was a bit more involved. Indeed, as I learned in Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons, I would’ve quickly run afoul of the persnickety inspectors from the Lighthouse Service, who were notorious for dropping in unannounced and making note of even the most minor infractions.
***
Lighthouses have been making a slow exit from our lives, going the way of elevator operators and full-service gas stations. Radar and global positioning had made the warning light a needless and expensive redundancy. Before I ever had a chance to apply for, receive, and get fired from a job as a keeper, it turned a relic. But as relics go, you can’t get much more beautiful.
When I picked up Brilliant Beacons, it was just before a little family vacation to Duluth, Minnesota, to gaze at Lake Superior, hunt for agates, and spend a couple hours standing in line at Betty’s Pies. Since no visit to Duluth is complete without a trip to see the North Shore’s famed Split Rock – perched atop a vertical cliff – I wanted a book to set the mood. There are plenty of lighthouse books out there, but most of them are just filled with pictures. I desired a volume with a bit more substance.
Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons proved to be just that.
***
My daughter Grace shows her enthusiasm for all things lighthouse at Split Rock Lighthouse, near Duluth, MN. Please note the Split Rock sweater we had to buy her that day, because Lake Superior weather be FICKLE
***
Dolin begins his survey in the Colonial Era when – as might be expected – the placement and quality of lighthouses developed on an ad hoc basis. He ends in the present day, with the lighthouse as a historical artifact, and details efforts at preservation. In between, in chapters that are sometimes chronological, sometimes thematic, he touches on all matters pertaining to these phallic wonders of maritime safety.
***
Lighthouses were one of the first expenditures for America’s newly-minted Federal Government. When Congress passed the Lighthouse Act in 1789, there were only twelve lighthouses for the entire east coast. That’s a lot of dark coastline.
One of the most fascinating storylines Dolin follows is the history of the Lighthouse Bureau and the Lighthouse Service, as they move from underfunded federal program to a surprisingly efficient bureaucracy. The towering figures of this saga is Fifth Auditor Stephen Pleasonton, who served some 30 years as the so-called “superintendent of lighthouses.” As you might expect from a man whose job title is “auditor,” Pleasonton was a penurious fellow who reigned during the dark days of American lighthouses. And I mean “dark days” literally, since American lighthouses used inferior lenses to those utilized in Europe. Pleasonton’s oversight certainly saved money. It is questionable whether that money outweighed the cost of ships smashed against hidden reefs, or sailors lost in a churning, frothy sea.
The quality of lighthouse light is a topic that is rightfully given substantial space. Dolin contrasts the inferior system devised by Winslow Lewis with the technologically advanced lenses developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel. Cost was one of the reasons for the slow implementation of Fresnel lenses on the American coast. Winslow Lewis’s lobbying tactics were another. Pleasonton and Lewis had a very close relationship, and it’s tempting to surmise that the nominally incorruptible Pleasonton might’ve been somehow corrupted by Lewis. In reality, it seems that Lewis appealed to Pleasonton because Lewis was a low bidder. Like much else of the American Experiment, it took time to get lighthouses right.
***
Throughout the book, Dolin keeps you abreast of architectural advances in lighthouse construction and design. Many lighthouses are marvels that exist to this day. Some lighthouses – such as the screw pile models that were bolted to the seabed out in the ocean – force you to marvel at the people who manned them.
Dolin has a keen eye for covering his subject from all angles. As noted above, he is all over the architecture and technology, the political fights and bureaucratic maneuverings. He also devotes a fascinating chapter to the everyday lives of lighthouse keepers, including female keepers, who played a unique role in lighthouse history.
***
Two reenactors at Split Rock model the uniform of the U.S. Lighthouse Service
***
There is a lot going on in Brilliant Beacons. Not every topic is handled with the same aplomb. The section on lighthouses during the American Revolution, and again during the American Civil War, read as weak military history. The chapter on the exploits of famous lighthouse keepers similarly disappoints. Dolin’s unadorned style is not suited to vivid anecdotes, with the result that you never feel the snap of the wind, the cold spray of the ocean; you never hear the mournful notes of the foghorn. This is a book that might have used a bit more of that humanity. Towards the end, Dolin mentions offhand how he visited many of the lighthouses he writes about. I wish that he had used that firsthand knowledge to suffuse his narrative with a bit more personality.
With that said, this is an enjoyable and informative read. Furthermore, it doesn’t stint the reader anything. There are black-and-white pictures interspersed throughout the text, so that whenever Dolin mentions a lighthouse, there’s a picture of it, right there. There’s even a full color inset in the middle, with gorgeous paintings and photos of some of our handsomest navigational aids. Dolin even includes a painting by his teenage daughter, which certainly wins points on the adorability scale.
***
My daughter Millie and Baby Cinderella play in Lake Superior, in the shadow of Split Rock
***
We live in a disposable society, anxious to move onward and forget. In this process, innumerable historical landmarks have been torn down and paved over. With technology making lighthouses almost totally unnecessary, it feels inevitable that they will be torn down so that an extremely rich person can have a place to live for two or three months out of the year.
But somehow, against the odds, many lighthouses still exist, one of the stable romances of our fleeting world. They have captured enough imaginations to save themselves. So, go visit one, if you can. If you can’t, Brilliant Beacons might be the next best thing.
- Eric Jay Dolan, Brilliant Beacons: A History of American Lighthouses
Growing up, lighthouse keeper was my job of choice. It seemed like such a perfect fit. I’d flip the light on at night, turn it off in the morning, and spend the rest of the time reading by the ocean, enjoying the amazing vistas and the salt-scented breeze from the sea. Given that I get exhausted around people, the solitude appealed to me as well.
Of course, the job of an actual lighthouse keeper was a bit more involved. Indeed, as I learned in Eric Jay Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons, I would’ve quickly run afoul of the persnickety inspectors from the Lighthouse Service, who were notorious for dropping in unannounced and making note of even the most minor infractions.
***
Lighthouses have been making a slow exit from our lives, going the way of elevator operators and full-service gas stations. Radar and global positioning had made the warning light a needless and expensive redundancy. Before I ever had a chance to apply for, receive, and get fired from a job as a keeper, it turned a relic. But as relics go, you can’t get much more beautiful.
When I picked up Brilliant Beacons, it was just before a little family vacation to Duluth, Minnesota, to gaze at Lake Superior, hunt for agates, and spend a couple hours standing in line at Betty’s Pies. Since no visit to Duluth is complete without a trip to see the North Shore’s famed Split Rock – perched atop a vertical cliff – I wanted a book to set the mood. There are plenty of lighthouse books out there, but most of them are just filled with pictures. I desired a volume with a bit more substance.
Dolin’s Brilliant Beacons proved to be just that.
***
My daughter Grace shows her enthusiasm for all things lighthouse at Split Rock Lighthouse, near Duluth, MN. Please note the Split Rock sweater we had to buy her that day, because Lake Superior weather be FICKLE
***
Dolin begins his survey in the Colonial Era when – as might be expected – the placement and quality of lighthouses developed on an ad hoc basis. He ends in the present day, with the lighthouse as a historical artifact, and details efforts at preservation. In between, in chapters that are sometimes chronological, sometimes thematic, he touches on all matters pertaining to these phallic wonders of maritime safety.
***
Lighthouses were one of the first expenditures for America’s newly-minted Federal Government. When Congress passed the Lighthouse Act in 1789, there were only twelve lighthouses for the entire east coast. That’s a lot of dark coastline.
One of the most fascinating storylines Dolin follows is the history of the Lighthouse Bureau and the Lighthouse Service, as they move from underfunded federal program to a surprisingly efficient bureaucracy. The towering figures of this saga is Fifth Auditor Stephen Pleasonton, who served some 30 years as the so-called “superintendent of lighthouses.” As you might expect from a man whose job title is “auditor,” Pleasonton was a penurious fellow who reigned during the dark days of American lighthouses. And I mean “dark days” literally, since American lighthouses used inferior lenses to those utilized in Europe. Pleasonton’s oversight certainly saved money. It is questionable whether that money outweighed the cost of ships smashed against hidden reefs, or sailors lost in a churning, frothy sea.
The quality of lighthouse light is a topic that is rightfully given substantial space. Dolin contrasts the inferior system devised by Winslow Lewis with the technologically advanced lenses developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel. Cost was one of the reasons for the slow implementation of Fresnel lenses on the American coast. Winslow Lewis’s lobbying tactics were another. Pleasonton and Lewis had a very close relationship, and it’s tempting to surmise that the nominally incorruptible Pleasonton might’ve been somehow corrupted by Lewis. In reality, it seems that Lewis appealed to Pleasonton because Lewis was a low bidder. Like much else of the American Experiment, it took time to get lighthouses right.
***
Throughout the book, Dolin keeps you abreast of architectural advances in lighthouse construction and design. Many lighthouses are marvels that exist to this day. Some lighthouses – such as the screw pile models that were bolted to the seabed out in the ocean – force you to marvel at the people who manned them.
Dolin has a keen eye for covering his subject from all angles. As noted above, he is all over the architecture and technology, the political fights and bureaucratic maneuverings. He also devotes a fascinating chapter to the everyday lives of lighthouse keepers, including female keepers, who played a unique role in lighthouse history.
***
Two reenactors at Split Rock model the uniform of the U.S. Lighthouse Service
***
There is a lot going on in Brilliant Beacons. Not every topic is handled with the same aplomb. The section on lighthouses during the American Revolution, and again during the American Civil War, read as weak military history. The chapter on the exploits of famous lighthouse keepers similarly disappoints. Dolin’s unadorned style is not suited to vivid anecdotes, with the result that you never feel the snap of the wind, the cold spray of the ocean; you never hear the mournful notes of the foghorn. This is a book that might have used a bit more of that humanity. Towards the end, Dolin mentions offhand how he visited many of the lighthouses he writes about. I wish that he had used that firsthand knowledge to suffuse his narrative with a bit more personality.
With that said, this is an enjoyable and informative read. Furthermore, it doesn’t stint the reader anything. There are black-and-white pictures interspersed throughout the text, so that whenever Dolin mentions a lighthouse, there’s a picture of it, right there. There’s even a full color inset in the middle, with gorgeous paintings and photos of some of our handsomest navigational aids. Dolin even includes a painting by his teenage daughter, which certainly wins points on the adorability scale.
***
My daughter Millie and Baby Cinderella play in Lake Superior, in the shadow of Split Rock
***
We live in a disposable society, anxious to move onward and forget. In this process, innumerable historical landmarks have been torn down and paved over. With technology making lighthouses almost totally unnecessary, it feels inevitable that they will be torn down so that an extremely rich person can have a place to live for two or three months out of the year.
But somehow, against the odds, many lighthouses still exist, one of the stable romances of our fleeting world. They have captured enough imaginations to save themselves. So, go visit one, if you can. If you can’t, Brilliant Beacons might be the next best thing.
July 8, 2019
Delightful! Covers everything from badass female keepers, to hurricane destruction, to historical context - the role lighthouses played in the Civil, Seminole, and World wars for example. The end even has a bit about ghosts, yessss.
January 26, 2017
This is a great book! Eric Dolin is the master of doing grand, sweeping histories. I was never much interested in lighthouses, but this book kept me turning pages, particularly as the author is so good about integrating the story with the larger history of what's going on in the country. Like any well written history, the book gets the reader emotionally involved in the lives and events of the people who populate the pages. Many great and often harrowing anecdotes of the keepers of the lighthouses. I highly recommend this one!
October 3, 2016
If Dennis Noble's Lighthouses and Keepers: The U.S. Lighthouse Service and Its Legacy was the best synthesis of US lighthouse history, Brilliant Beacons is the closest we've come to a true monograph on the same subject. In 422 pages, Dolin presents a moderately comprehensive history from colonial times to the present. The first 132 pages cover the early era: all the colonial lighthouses, lighthouses in the Revolutionary War, post-colonial, and the infamous Pleasanton era. The next hundred pages cover the general history of the "Golden Era" of lighthouses under the Lighthouse Board and Lighthouse Bureau (1852-1939), followed by another 150 pages on various aspects of lighthouses during that era such as keeper's duties, lives, and heroics and some examples of especially difficult engineering feats. The modern era of Coast Guard lightkeeping and public & private lighthouse preservation and restoration efforts get less than three dozen pages.
I think Dolin does a very good job tackling the subject matter which I think we understands quite well. There are extensive endnotes and the narrative is an enjoyable read that I breezed through in less than a week (admittedly, I have a strong preexisting interest in the subject). Appropriate illustrations and photos are scattered throughout.
An entire chapter is spent on the impact of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 on lighthouses and keepers. While it's a short chapter of only 17 pages it seems like an oddly specific tangent, especially since only one other hurricane gets more than a passing mention. If there's a problem with this book that is somewhat a symptom of it. I was left scratching my head a bit on what gets left out, such as the challenges of the Florida Reef Lights or almost any mention of the Outer Banks lighthouses beyond "Cape Hatteras is really important and the lens went on a wild adventure in the Civil War". The famous Minot's Ledge Lighthouse disaster goes oddly unmentioned until the chapter on engineering. I think Noble's much shorter book manages to do a better job covering certain aspects of lighthouse history than Dolin. This book could have really used another 50-100 pages.
"Brilliant Beacons" is not quite a brilliant book, but it is a really good one. Anyone interested in lighthouses wanting something both interesting and fun yet substantial will be quite pleased with this work. (I suspect the issues I pointed out are the kind that will likely go unnoticed by most readers.) Strongly recommended.
I think Dolin does a very good job tackling the subject matter which I think we understands quite well. There are extensive endnotes and the narrative is an enjoyable read that I breezed through in less than a week (admittedly, I have a strong preexisting interest in the subject). Appropriate illustrations and photos are scattered throughout.
An entire chapter is spent on the impact of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 on lighthouses and keepers. While it's a short chapter of only 17 pages it seems like an oddly specific tangent, especially since only one other hurricane gets more than a passing mention. If there's a problem with this book that is somewhat a symptom of it. I was left scratching my head a bit on what gets left out, such as the challenges of the Florida Reef Lights or almost any mention of the Outer Banks lighthouses beyond "Cape Hatteras is really important and the lens went on a wild adventure in the Civil War". The famous Minot's Ledge Lighthouse disaster goes oddly unmentioned until the chapter on engineering. I think Noble's much shorter book manages to do a better job covering certain aspects of lighthouse history than Dolin. This book could have really used another 50-100 pages.
"Brilliant Beacons" is not quite a brilliant book, but it is a really good one. Anyone interested in lighthouses wanting something both interesting and fun yet substantial will be quite pleased with this work. (I suspect the issues I pointed out are the kind that will likely go unnoticed by most readers.) Strongly recommended.
June 2, 2021
I love lighthouses, and I have traveled all over this country to see them so I was interested to see what this book had to say. It says a lot about the history of lighthouses in this country, the good and the bad as well as many stories by those who took care of the lights through thick and thin. Lighthouses have been important in our history, and they still are. Fortunately, many people have recognized this and have made an effort to preserve them. The Coast Guard may be responsible for maintenance, but it is the people who love them who keep their legacies alive. This book is a real tribute to lighthouses and those who dedicated their lives to keeping them lit through the best and worst of times.
June 19, 2016
I love lighthouses, and visit as many as I can, so I knew a little bit about the history, but this book filled me in on so much more. What made this more than just a history book, though, was the stories of the people who lived in them, worked on them, and kept them going all those years.
August 4, 2019
This was a fascinating and informative read about lighthouses in the United States. Full of stories about keepers, builders, the lenses, lighthouses during war times, the perils of the sea, and a lot of history in general, this is an important look at the history of our nation.
This is very well written and reads easily. It's not just lists of facts, but real stories that were dug from articles and books. A lot of research went into this book and it shows.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in history. Not just concerning lighthouses, but history in general, because this has a lot of information. The lists of museums and notes at the back are also excellent to reference for further information and to find out where to look if you want to visit a lighthouse.
A fascinating and informative read. And it gave me a lot of inspiration for one of the novels I am working on right now, which makes it even better.
This is very well written and reads easily. It's not just lists of facts, but real stories that were dug from articles and books. A lot of research went into this book and it shows.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in history. Not just concerning lighthouses, but history in general, because this has a lot of information. The lists of museums and notes at the back are also excellent to reference for further information and to find out where to look if you want to visit a lighthouse.
A fascinating and informative read. And it gave me a lot of inspiration for one of the novels I am working on right now, which makes it even better.
September 19, 2022
A really good, well-researched, and amply illustrated history of lighthouses in the United States, including the development of lighthouse technology and architecture and the saga of individual lighthouses and lighthouse keepers. Writing was never dry and was very informative, the author doing a great job with the more technical aspects of lighthouse technology (particularly the “crown jewels of lighthouse illumination – Fresnel lens”, which are well detailed in the book) and relaying many gripping tales associated with lighthouses and lighthouse keepers.
Excellent organization, with each chapter focusing on specific aspects of lighthouses or a particular period of history as it pertains to lighthouses, all accompanied by numerous black and white illustrations and with color plates in the center of the book. Chapter 1, “Colonial Lights,” covered some general historical aspects of lighthouses (the first known lighthouse in antiquity was Pharos, which lit the entrance to the Greek city of Alexandria, from which we get the name pharology, the scientific study of lighthouses) and some of the history of lighthouses in Colonial America including Boston Lighthouse (America’s first lighthouse, lit on September 14, 1716) and Sandy Hook Lighthouse (lit on June 11, 1764, “the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the nation”).
Chapter 2, “Casualties of War,” details the roles lighthouses played during the American Revolutionary War, with notable sections on the attacks on the Boston Lighthouse and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Chapter 3, “Lights of a New Nation,” is an important chapter detailing a lot of the early history of lighthouses after American independence and also covering many aspects of lighthouse technology. Topics covered include the Lighthouse Act (signed into law August 7, 1789, only the ninth law passed by Congress and “America’s first public works program”), how lighthouses were administered, the evolution over time of how American lighthouses were illuminated (with by the beginning of the nineteenth century sperm whale oil “the illuminant of choice”), the evolution of lighthouse lamps (covering complete with diagrams spider lamps and the Argand lamps backed by parabolic reflectors that replaced them), the role Winslow Lewis played in advancing lamp technology (which the author wrote, while better than what was used before, “Lewis’s lighting apparatus was not very good” and “[h]ad the patent process been more scrupulous, it is doubtful that Lewis’s application [for a “magnifying and reflecting lantern”] would have succeeded”; quite interesting reading), the role of lighthouses in the War of 1812 (particularly the story surrounding the Scituate Lighthouse in Massachusetts).
Chapter 4, “Economy Above All,” focuses a lot on Stephen Pleasonton, who became in 1820 an unofficial “superintendent of lighthouses,” whose tenure played a massive role in lighthouse construction, development, and management in the first half of the nineteenth century (he held his job for thirty-two years), whose management (and partnership with Lewis) as the author showed “didn’t serve the best interests of the nation or the mariners who plied its shores.” Also covered are lighthouses that were built in areas away from New England and the mid-Atlantic states, such as on the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, and the Florida Keys. A favorite part of the chapter is the drama associated with the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, which was not only the first lighthouse in the Florida Keys but also witnessed dramatic events on July 23, 1836 as part of the Second Seminole War.
Chapter 5, “Europeans Take The Lead,” was a diagram-packed chapter on advances in lighthouse illumination technology, with European innovations quickly outclassing “Lewis’s poorly constructed reflectors.” There is an in-depth discussion of enormous advances brought about by the work of the Frenchman Augustin-Jean Fresnel (“pronounced freh-NEL”), with his concept of “lenses by steps” leading to the famed Fresnel lens creating a revolution in lighthouse technology, a technology that as the author details due to Lewis and Pleasonton, the United States was very slow and reluctant to adapt despite many enthusiastic supporters in the US for this new invention. Chapter 6, “The “Rule of Ignorant and Incompetent Men””, was on the long, slow, contentious process of updating American lighthouse technology, with advancements stopped again and again by Pleasonton, “a myopic and narrow-minded bureaucrat at best…too far reliant on the reports of self-serving contractors, which were invariably favorable,” people very much opposed to any innovations or reform. While the previous chapter was largely on science and technology, this was on bureaucratic infighting and politics. One of the biggest opponents of Lewis and his desire to maintain the status quo was William Penn Lewis, (“or IWP, as he liked to be called”), who “it just so happened, was Winslow Lewis’s nephew.”
Chapter 7, “Brighter Lights,” details the reforms brought by the Lighthouse Board (first convened in October 1852), additional advances in and the science of the technology of Fresnel lens (discussing among other things the six sizes or orders of the lenses, based on the distance between the flame and the lens, with the largest the first-order lens, “which were twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter”), the construction of the first lighthouses in Texas and on the Pacific, with quite a bit of time spent on the saga of the Farallon Island Lighthouse on Southeast Farallon Island off the coast of California. Chapter 8, “”Everything Being Recklessly Broken””, details the saga of lighthouses during the Civil War, covering what the South did to the lighthouses in their possession when they left the Union, the saga of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (and the associated “Chicamacomico Races”) and damage inflicted on lighthouses, either directly and intentionally or as a result of fighting, such as the Mobile Point Lighthouse in Alabama damaged during the bombardment of Fort Morgan by the Union fleet in 1864.
Chapter 9, “From Board to Service,” discussed the “time of triumph” for the Lighthouse Board following the Civil War as lighthouses were repaired or replaced, new ones were built, and lighthouse administration and technology continued to advance. Topics covered including kerosene becoming dominant while electricity was being experiment with for lighthouse illumination, a small but surprising section on how the Statue of Liberty was at one time intended to also operate as a lighthouse, additional technology advances such as the incandescent oil vapor lamp (or IOV, a “major advance in the burning of kerosene”), improvements in the technology of rotating the lens in lighthouses, advances in lighthouse design and construction such as the use of iron and later steel to build skeleton-tower lighthouses on land and caisson lighthouses at exposed sites out in the water, the science of fog signals, as well as coverage of life in a lighthouse as a keeper and the construction of lighthouses in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Oh and George R. Putnam, appointed the first commissioner of lighthouses by President Taft in June 1910, is an important figure in the chapter.
Chapter 10, “Keepers and Their Lives,” is pretty much like it sounds. You learn about the daily life of “wickies” as far as what they did, the machinery they had to maintain, what it was like to grow up in a lighthouse, about women lighthouse keepers, pets and livestock kept at lighthouses, deadly coworker conflicts that occurred at lighthouses (such as at Whale Rock), threats posed by strangers (such as at Ship Shoal Lighthouse off the Louisiana coast), and the Flying Santa, begun by Capt. William “Bill” H. Wincapaw in 1929, that visited so man lighthouses to spread presents and cheer.
Chapter 11, “Lighthouse Heroes,” details two of the most famous lighthouse keepers who saved lives, Ida Lewis and Marcus A. Hanna, making for gripping reading with two separate sagas. Chapter 12, “Marvels of Engineering and Construction,” detailed the stories of three specific lighthouses that “can truly be considered marvels of engineering and construction,” Minot’s Lighthouse in Massachusetts, Tillamook Rock in Oregon, and St. George’s Reef in northern California, all gripping stories. Chapter 13, “Of Birds and Eggs,” was a surprising chapter, on the history of the interaction between birds and lighthouses, beginning with a section on the collision of migrating birds with lighthouses and closing with the role lighthouse keepers played in bird conservation (particularly of nesting seabirds).
Chapter 14, “Cruel Wind,” details terrible storms that damaged or destroyed lighthouses and what life was like for those that survived, with much of the chapter detailing the lighthouses destroyed or damaged by the Great Hurricane of 1938, which significantly damaged twenty-five New England lighthouses (and destroyed one, Whale Rock). Chapter 15, “The New Keepers,” covers the end of the Lighthouse Service as it got folded into the U.S Coast Guard, the story of automation and the end of crewed lighthouses, the sad story of the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island, Alaska, destroyed by a tsunami on April 1, 1946, the story of the last civilian keeper, Frank Shubert of the Coney Island Lighthouse, and efforts to preserve and restore lighthouses by the government, nonprofit organizations, and private individuals. The epilogue is a tour by the author of significant lighthouses near his Marblehead, Massachusetts home.
There is an extensive section of notes, a select bibliography, and an index.
Excellent organization, with each chapter focusing on specific aspects of lighthouses or a particular period of history as it pertains to lighthouses, all accompanied by numerous black and white illustrations and with color plates in the center of the book. Chapter 1, “Colonial Lights,” covered some general historical aspects of lighthouses (the first known lighthouse in antiquity was Pharos, which lit the entrance to the Greek city of Alexandria, from which we get the name pharology, the scientific study of lighthouses) and some of the history of lighthouses in Colonial America including Boston Lighthouse (America’s first lighthouse, lit on September 14, 1716) and Sandy Hook Lighthouse (lit on June 11, 1764, “the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the nation”).
Chapter 2, “Casualties of War,” details the roles lighthouses played during the American Revolutionary War, with notable sections on the attacks on the Boston Lighthouse and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Chapter 3, “Lights of a New Nation,” is an important chapter detailing a lot of the early history of lighthouses after American independence and also covering many aspects of lighthouse technology. Topics covered include the Lighthouse Act (signed into law August 7, 1789, only the ninth law passed by Congress and “America’s first public works program”), how lighthouses were administered, the evolution over time of how American lighthouses were illuminated (with by the beginning of the nineteenth century sperm whale oil “the illuminant of choice”), the evolution of lighthouse lamps (covering complete with diagrams spider lamps and the Argand lamps backed by parabolic reflectors that replaced them), the role Winslow Lewis played in advancing lamp technology (which the author wrote, while better than what was used before, “Lewis’s lighting apparatus was not very good” and “[h]ad the patent process been more scrupulous, it is doubtful that Lewis’s application [for a “magnifying and reflecting lantern”] would have succeeded”; quite interesting reading), the role of lighthouses in the War of 1812 (particularly the story surrounding the Scituate Lighthouse in Massachusetts).
Chapter 4, “Economy Above All,” focuses a lot on Stephen Pleasonton, who became in 1820 an unofficial “superintendent of lighthouses,” whose tenure played a massive role in lighthouse construction, development, and management in the first half of the nineteenth century (he held his job for thirty-two years), whose management (and partnership with Lewis) as the author showed “didn’t serve the best interests of the nation or the mariners who plied its shores.” Also covered are lighthouses that were built in areas away from New England and the mid-Atlantic states, such as on the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, and the Florida Keys. A favorite part of the chapter is the drama associated with the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, which was not only the first lighthouse in the Florida Keys but also witnessed dramatic events on July 23, 1836 as part of the Second Seminole War.
Chapter 5, “Europeans Take The Lead,” was a diagram-packed chapter on advances in lighthouse illumination technology, with European innovations quickly outclassing “Lewis’s poorly constructed reflectors.” There is an in-depth discussion of enormous advances brought about by the work of the Frenchman Augustin-Jean Fresnel (“pronounced freh-NEL”), with his concept of “lenses by steps” leading to the famed Fresnel lens creating a revolution in lighthouse technology, a technology that as the author details due to Lewis and Pleasonton, the United States was very slow and reluctant to adapt despite many enthusiastic supporters in the US for this new invention. Chapter 6, “The “Rule of Ignorant and Incompetent Men””, was on the long, slow, contentious process of updating American lighthouse technology, with advancements stopped again and again by Pleasonton, “a myopic and narrow-minded bureaucrat at best…too far reliant on the reports of self-serving contractors, which were invariably favorable,” people very much opposed to any innovations or reform. While the previous chapter was largely on science and technology, this was on bureaucratic infighting and politics. One of the biggest opponents of Lewis and his desire to maintain the status quo was William Penn Lewis, (“or IWP, as he liked to be called”), who “it just so happened, was Winslow Lewis’s nephew.”
Chapter 7, “Brighter Lights,” details the reforms brought by the Lighthouse Board (first convened in October 1852), additional advances in and the science of the technology of Fresnel lens (discussing among other things the six sizes or orders of the lenses, based on the distance between the flame and the lens, with the largest the first-order lens, “which were twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter”), the construction of the first lighthouses in Texas and on the Pacific, with quite a bit of time spent on the saga of the Farallon Island Lighthouse on Southeast Farallon Island off the coast of California. Chapter 8, “”Everything Being Recklessly Broken””, details the saga of lighthouses during the Civil War, covering what the South did to the lighthouses in their possession when they left the Union, the saga of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (and the associated “Chicamacomico Races”) and damage inflicted on lighthouses, either directly and intentionally or as a result of fighting, such as the Mobile Point Lighthouse in Alabama damaged during the bombardment of Fort Morgan by the Union fleet in 1864.
Chapter 9, “From Board to Service,” discussed the “time of triumph” for the Lighthouse Board following the Civil War as lighthouses were repaired or replaced, new ones were built, and lighthouse administration and technology continued to advance. Topics covered including kerosene becoming dominant while electricity was being experiment with for lighthouse illumination, a small but surprising section on how the Statue of Liberty was at one time intended to also operate as a lighthouse, additional technology advances such as the incandescent oil vapor lamp (or IOV, a “major advance in the burning of kerosene”), improvements in the technology of rotating the lens in lighthouses, advances in lighthouse design and construction such as the use of iron and later steel to build skeleton-tower lighthouses on land and caisson lighthouses at exposed sites out in the water, the science of fog signals, as well as coverage of life in a lighthouse as a keeper and the construction of lighthouses in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Oh and George R. Putnam, appointed the first commissioner of lighthouses by President Taft in June 1910, is an important figure in the chapter.
Chapter 10, “Keepers and Their Lives,” is pretty much like it sounds. You learn about the daily life of “wickies” as far as what they did, the machinery they had to maintain, what it was like to grow up in a lighthouse, about women lighthouse keepers, pets and livestock kept at lighthouses, deadly coworker conflicts that occurred at lighthouses (such as at Whale Rock), threats posed by strangers (such as at Ship Shoal Lighthouse off the Louisiana coast), and the Flying Santa, begun by Capt. William “Bill” H. Wincapaw in 1929, that visited so man lighthouses to spread presents and cheer.
Chapter 11, “Lighthouse Heroes,” details two of the most famous lighthouse keepers who saved lives, Ida Lewis and Marcus A. Hanna, making for gripping reading with two separate sagas. Chapter 12, “Marvels of Engineering and Construction,” detailed the stories of three specific lighthouses that “can truly be considered marvels of engineering and construction,” Minot’s Lighthouse in Massachusetts, Tillamook Rock in Oregon, and St. George’s Reef in northern California, all gripping stories. Chapter 13, “Of Birds and Eggs,” was a surprising chapter, on the history of the interaction between birds and lighthouses, beginning with a section on the collision of migrating birds with lighthouses and closing with the role lighthouse keepers played in bird conservation (particularly of nesting seabirds).
Chapter 14, “Cruel Wind,” details terrible storms that damaged or destroyed lighthouses and what life was like for those that survived, with much of the chapter detailing the lighthouses destroyed or damaged by the Great Hurricane of 1938, which significantly damaged twenty-five New England lighthouses (and destroyed one, Whale Rock). Chapter 15, “The New Keepers,” covers the end of the Lighthouse Service as it got folded into the U.S Coast Guard, the story of automation and the end of crewed lighthouses, the sad story of the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island, Alaska, destroyed by a tsunami on April 1, 1946, the story of the last civilian keeper, Frank Shubert of the Coney Island Lighthouse, and efforts to preserve and restore lighthouses by the government, nonprofit organizations, and private individuals. The epilogue is a tour by the author of significant lighthouses near his Marblehead, Massachusetts home.
There is an extensive section of notes, a select bibliography, and an index.
May 6, 2016
A detailed book, telling of the 300 yrs America's shores illuminated by light houses. Perhaps a book, only a Coastie who spent 16 mos. with some lighthouse involvement and others who love to see these saviors of the seamen would enjoy. Some dates: 1883, Uniforms for keepers, 1896, getting keeper job involved written and oral tests, 1938, Hurricane badly damaged 25 lighthouses from Long Island to Gloucester, killing 7 keepers and/or their wives. In 1939 the Light House Service put under the Coast Guard and became a military branch of the Service. 1946 An Alaska earthquake and the seismic wave created did much damage to the light houses along Alaska's shore.
July 28, 2017
Very well researched and organized, but a book with this many shipwrecks shouldn't have bored me like this.
July 20, 2020
A good book, providing an in-depth history of America’s lighthouses, from the initial lanterns on a lee shore of early colonial days to the high-tech beacons of today. As with author Eric Jay Dolin’s other books covering industries of Americana, this story mixes hard facts and detailed history with plenty of first person accounts and memories. All aspects of lighthouses are covered, to include the choice of location, their construction, their day to day functions, and the government investment and oversight essential to their success. Especially interesting in the book is the description of the long process to bring American lighthouses up to the standards found in Europe at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Also noteworthy are descriptions of the intense engineering feats necessary to construct lighthouses in some of the more daunting locations. The life and struggles of lighthouse keepers are well told. Their various exploits and the dangers they faced make for exciting reading. I did think that Dolin was a little too naïve in downplaying the opposition to lighthouses (both for their initial construction and continued improvements) - coastal communities had a lot to gain from rich shipwrecks and the close-hold of local navigational knowledge. But, as with his other books, Dolin makes a point to be less concerned with explaining the debates in certain specific situations and more about telling the broader history. Highly recommended for those wanting to know more about the why, who, and how of America’s lighthouses.
April 22, 2018
I really liked Brilliant Beacons. My husband and I discovered our first lighthouse in May 1980, on our first wedding anniversary. Being from central Illinois, we didn't know much about lighthouses. We soon began to call them America's Castles. This is an amazingly detailed account of their history in the United States. We have been to dozens of lighthouses and it is so wonderful to know more about them.
I suggest this book to anyone interested in lighthouses, the history of lighthouses, the lighthouse keepers, and some U.S. History.
I suggest this book to anyone interested in lighthouses, the history of lighthouses, the lighthouse keepers, and some U.S. History.
January 8, 2019
“Brilliant Beacons” by Eric Jay Dolin is a phenomenal work encompassing the history of the American Lighthouse. I have been an avid lighthouse aficionado and this book taught me the impact that lighthouses made in America. Dolin did a great job informing the reader in a comprehensive manner, the importance of the Lighthouse. I suggest everyone to read this book because it will shine a light on a part of our history and cultural heritage.
January 28, 2024
Absolutely fascinating story of the development of the American lighthouse. You'll get to the end and want to visit every lighthouse from coast to coast!
February 11, 2025
Really well written and entertainingly informational. Lots of lovely pictures included. Fun to dive into a new topic.
October 28, 2016
Review title: Lights on lighthouse history
Lighthouses are the subject of many romantic notions and overly romanticised accounts in photo-heavy but information-light coffee-table books. This isn't one of those. Dolin has written a narrative history of lighthouses in America from every angle. The book is readable if at times veering into the trite territory he generally avoids. To be fair, much if the fault lies in the trace if the contemporary source materials he uses for much of his background, proving that newspapers, posts, and politicians even in the past often fell into the treacle trap.
The history starts with the early construction of Eastern seaboard lighthouses in 18th century colonial New England. Dolin documents the role of those few lights in the Revolutionary War, then the post war struggle between the states and the new but feeble federal government over funding and management of lighthouses. This struggle continued for decades, freezing the construction of new and updating of existing lights through the 1850s,by which time 100 year old technology and outdated management left the US far behind England and France, and endangering and hampering shipping and transportation on the eastern waterways. With funding and management changes in the 1850s interrupted by the Civil War (in which lights were both protection and targets), the years between the end of that war and the beginning of the second World War might be called the Golden age of American lighthouses, with expansion south down the east coast, and west across the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico to the west coast, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Dolin documents every aspect relating to the subject: funding, management, engineering and construction, staffing, lighthouse keeping lifestyles, literature and arts, decommissioning and modernization, and finally lists current lighthouse preservation and historical societies and museums. This isn't an academic history, but a comprehensive popular history that should serve as a very good introduction to the topic for most readers. There are pictures and personal interest accounts, but not the large format pictures that dominate the coffee table genre. I thought the writing sometimes lacked the spark of interest that would have added a fourth star to this rating, but Beacons still shines bright enough to be a book worth reading.
Lighthouses are the subject of many romantic notions and overly romanticised accounts in photo-heavy but information-light coffee-table books. This isn't one of those. Dolin has written a narrative history of lighthouses in America from every angle. The book is readable if at times veering into the trite territory he generally avoids. To be fair, much if the fault lies in the trace if the contemporary source materials he uses for much of his background, proving that newspapers, posts, and politicians even in the past often fell into the treacle trap.
The history starts with the early construction of Eastern seaboard lighthouses in 18th century colonial New England. Dolin documents the role of those few lights in the Revolutionary War, then the post war struggle between the states and the new but feeble federal government over funding and management of lighthouses. This struggle continued for decades, freezing the construction of new and updating of existing lights through the 1850s,by which time 100 year old technology and outdated management left the US far behind England and France, and endangering and hampering shipping and transportation on the eastern waterways. With funding and management changes in the 1850s interrupted by the Civil War (in which lights were both protection and targets), the years between the end of that war and the beginning of the second World War might be called the Golden age of American lighthouses, with expansion south down the east coast, and west across the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico to the west coast, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Dolin documents every aspect relating to the subject: funding, management, engineering and construction, staffing, lighthouse keeping lifestyles, literature and arts, decommissioning and modernization, and finally lists current lighthouse preservation and historical societies and museums. This isn't an academic history, but a comprehensive popular history that should serve as a very good introduction to the topic for most readers. There are pictures and personal interest accounts, but not the large format pictures that dominate the coffee table genre. I thought the writing sometimes lacked the spark of interest that would have added a fourth star to this rating, but Beacons still shines bright enough to be a book worth reading.
April 7, 2016
I really, really like lighthouses. I cannot explain why – after all they are anachronistic structures from an age before radio and GPS. But I cannot pass a lighthouse without stopping to explore. As a kid, my parents took me to Barnegat Light (NJ) countless times. “Old Barney” became a personal favorite (I last visited in 2014). So when “Brilliant Beacons” was published, it moved right to the top of my reading list. Eric Jay Dolin has done a magnificent job chronicling the history of the American lighthouse, telling the saga through the stories of those who built, manned and were saved by these seaside icons. History comes to life through the author’s extensive research and creative pen. Don’t bother with the Kindle version: The hardback edition is a throwback to the glory days of book design with a gorgeous jacket, sturdy binding, and heavy paper trimmed with the deckled edges of past classics. No contest: This is my favorite book of the year, thus far.
October 14, 2016
I rarely come across a non-fiction that I consider a page-turner, but to me, this book was riveting. I would have finished it in under a week but had a long business trip and started a slow fiction in between starting and finishing this as the hardcover is heavy. But be warned if you read non-fiction before bedtime in the hopes it will put you to sleep as this can be hard to put down and the time flies while you're lost in the richly described anecdotes (my singular favorite was about the lighthouse which toppled near St. Michaels, MD, into the Chesapeake during the winter with the keepers still in it, that imagery will remain with me). If you love lighthouses, stories of daring sea rescues, politics, stories of independent women, and science and engineering, you will enjoy this book. I cannot help but feel like the target demographic as it combines all of my favorite things. Thank you Eric Jay Dolin, I will now have to seek out your previous books.
April 29, 2022
I should start off by saying that I love everything about lighthouses so maybe I am biased. I am not ashamed to say so. Was I predisposed to love this book before cracking the cover? Yes, but it’s still that good. Trust me.
Dolin does a great job of giving you everything a lighthouse fanatic would need. He gets into the science, the history, the famous stories, and ones you’ve never heard of. He doesn’t get too bogged down in any specific details and by the end you feel like you got all the information you needed.
I found the science part to be more interesting than I expected. And as everyone knows, the elimination of the lighthouse keeper position is a sad development at the end. Dolin handles this well and really gets the emotion out of you. Or maybe I am a big baby. I dunno.
Read it and have fun!
Dolin does a great job of giving you everything a lighthouse fanatic would need. He gets into the science, the history, the famous stories, and ones you’ve never heard of. He doesn’t get too bogged down in any specific details and by the end you feel like you got all the information you needed.
I found the science part to be more interesting than I expected. And as everyone knows, the elimination of the lighthouse keeper position is a sad development at the end. Dolin handles this well and really gets the emotion out of you. Or maybe I am a big baby. I dunno.
Read it and have fun!
May 9, 2016
What a great book about lighthouses. Who knew the history behind them was so complex? We have probably all heard about how the lighthouses and the keepers saved ships at sea, but the keepers of the lighthouses were responsible for so much more.
This was a a well-researched study full of entertaining stories and anecdotes, sure to be of interest to historians and lighthouse devotees but also to casual readers who probably never imagined lighthouses to be so interesting and historically significant.
The book is quite large (over 400 pages), and a lot of research went into it. Very well documented with endnotes, it also includes a list of lighthouse organizations.
I received a copy of this from Goodreads, in exchange for a review.
This was a a well-researched study full of entertaining stories and anecdotes, sure to be of interest to historians and lighthouse devotees but also to casual readers who probably never imagined lighthouses to be so interesting and historically significant.
The book is quite large (over 400 pages), and a lot of research went into it. Very well documented with endnotes, it also includes a list of lighthouse organizations.
I received a copy of this from Goodreads, in exchange for a review.
February 5, 2017
Utterly fascinating! I thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth exploration of the history of America's lighthouse system. Not only did this book shine a light on a matter of American history that is often overlooked, it provided a unique lens through which to view certain aspects of the evolution of our nation.
All puns 100 percent intended.
All puns 100 percent intended.
March 20, 2017
A fascinating look at the history of the American lighthouse, weaving in tales of politics, bureaucracy, war, westward expansion, civil servitude, and more. This book touches on themes related to mariners, architecture, engineering, and simply amazing stories about people who rose to do incredibly heroic and tough work in terribly challenging conditions. As someone who has long been fascinated by the lighthouses of our country, this book did not disappointed.
December 26, 2015
Comprehensive survey of American lighthouses, a unique, well-researched study replete with entertaining stories and anecdotes, sure to be of interest to historians and lighthouse devotees but also to casual readers who probably never imagined lighthouses to be both fascinating and historically significant.
November 14, 2019
Never expected to actually enjoy this book so much. Not a dry history. Brilliant Beacons was filled with stories and adventures of lighthouse keepers, construction challenges, war time involvement since the revolution. Who doesn’t love visiting lighthouses. I first encountered lighthouses while serving in the Coast Guard ( 1960’s) in NYC and New London CT.
March 22, 2018
Extremely informative and entertaining; until reading this I didn't appreciate how every lighthouse is a literally bookmark in history~
Opened up a new subject matter for further exploration, research and more good reading!
Opened up a new subject matter for further exploration, research and more good reading!
May 6, 2016
Fascinating book full of factual, historical details. Anyone who smiles at the sight of a lighthouse must read this book. Beautifully written, with loads of photographs. Highly recommend.
Read
May 8, 2016very interesting. The author of this book did a lot of research. Good job
August 17, 2016
An interesting subject, poorly written.
November 25, 2017
Loved this book! very informative and well written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews